New release date for The Wolverine

Here we go again

Given the off-again on-again nature of X-Men Origins sequel The Wolverine, we’d almost given up on seeing Hugh Jackman don the claws again for another big screen outing.

Indeed, The Wolverine has undergone so many false starts that it must surely be regarded as the new go-to example for explaining the phrase “development hell”.

Adverse weather conditions, directors with cold feet, scheduling conflicts… you name it, The Wolverine has endured it. However, there does finally seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel, with Fox announcing an official release date for the superhero sequel.

That date is 26 July 2013, giving director James Mangold a year at most to get the film in the can. Given that Jackman has also yet to shoot Les Miserables , that seems like quite a squeeze, but hopefully it shouldn’t detract from the end product too much.

The latest draft of the script has been penned by Mark Bomback, and will see an amnesia-suffering Wolverine heading to Japan to find answers concerning his past. Whilst there he falls in love and finds himself tangling with a powerful warrior known as the Silver Samurai.

We really do hope the new release date sticks this time around, although given the project’s troubled history, we won’t be holding our breath…